McDonald’s Corp. continues to tinker with its menu

This week the fast food chain announced it has pulled sandwiches from its menu and is testing a simpler version of its Create Your Taste program.

Just months after the Golden Arches cut eight menu items, Bloomberg reports it has done it again, this time nixing nine sandwiches in the first quarter of 2015. Of the items that already got the boot are the Deluxe Quarter Pounder burger, six chicken sandwiches, and the honey mustard and chipotle barbecue snack wraps.

A spokesperson for the company tells Bloomberg that the items were axed from menus as part of a “rolling removal,” meaning restaurants discontinued the meals when they ran out of supplies.

McDonald’s started slimming down its menu following six straight quarters of same-store sales declines in the U.S, according to Bloomberg, in an effort to speed up customer service.

Meanwhile, the Golden Arches announced it’s testing a simpler version of its Create Your Taste program that lets customers customize their burgers with fewer options.

Called TasteCrafted, the streamlined service will still give customers choices, but aims to speed things up in the service line and at the drive-thru, McDonald’s announced.

“Customers will be able to customize their burger or chicken sandwich with their choice of bun and topping combinations, including bacon clubhouse, pico guacamole, hot jalapeno and deluxe,” McDonald’s spokeswoman Lisa McComb told Crains. The idea is to “quickly introduce more choice to our customers as we work toward greater customization.”

The program will be tested along California’s central coast, the Atlanta region and in Portland, Oregon. Customizable food is one tactic McDonald’s is using to lure back customers who want choices they can find a restaurants, such as Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.

A glass of water a day ‘can cut diabetes

The latest findings by the Medical Research Council epidemiology unit at the University of Cambridge suggests water could be a simple solution.

Lead scientist Dr Nita Forouhi said: “Our research adds further evidence to the recommendation from the World Health Organisation to limit the intake of free sugars.”

Alasdair Rankin, director of research at Diabetes UK said the “important” study added to the overwhelming evidence that sugary drinks increased the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

“It is not yet clear whether the increase in risk is down to the calories in sugary drinks leading to weight gain or if there is something else going on in the body that we do not understand,” he said.

Cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, who works at Frimley Park Hospital, Surrey, said Type 2 diabetes cost the NHS about £20billion a year.

The adviser to the campaign group Action on Sugar said: “The Government should introduce a 20 per cent sugary drinks tax as recommended by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

“Oxford researchers have calculated such a measure would reduce the number of people in the UK from becoming obese by 180,000 within one year.” The scientists found that by replacing one sugary drink a day for either water, unsweetened tea or coffee, the risk of developing diabetes was reduced by 14 to 25 per cent.